Christ the King

Jeremiah 23:1-6; Psalm 46; Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43

Throughout history, people of all ages have had a very important question to deal with. Who shall we accept as our leader? The answer ultimately determines who are and how we shall act, as well as our eternal destiny.

When a child is born, the answer is very quickly found. The infant will accept as leader anyone who does exactly what the infant wants. If the infant is hungry and a woman nearby feeds the infant, the infant is happy. But if no one feeds the infant, then that infant will struggle and resist and cry out very loudly until all the people around her do exactly what she wants done – or until she dies from starvation and weakness. For most infants, questions of leadership are easily answered: “It is my way or I will punish you with my wail!”

As a child grows, there is always a struggle between the child and the parents over who will lead. Usually, the superior force and wisdom of the parents will win over the whiny little brat, but not always, for there are many children in this world who lead in their households. I knew a couple that had decided that their three-year-old child should make decisions. “Son, do you want to go to bed?” the exhausted father would ask. “No!” was the answer from the three-year-old who was so ragged he was ready to fall down. Eventually, an hour later, “Son, I’m getting tired. Do you want to go to bed?” The response was immediate: “No! You go to bed!” And Dad walked down the hall and went to bed! I’m not sure what happened as that child grew up, but I’m sure it wasn’t pretty.

As we move into our teenage years, the question arises once again: Who shall we follow? Shall we follow our parents, shall we follow our teachers, shall we follow our coaches, or shall we follow our charismatic friend? Who do we give the right to tell us what to do?

Increasingly today, we claim that right to lead for ourselves. We shall bow to no one else! We are self-sufficient, able to make all of our own decisions, accepting the leadership of no man or woman. And this is the American ideal.

In the 1800’s, a visiting Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, “As social conditions become more equal, the number of persons increases who, although they are neither rich nor powerful enough to exercise any great influence over their fellows, have nevertheless acquired or retained sufficient education and fortune to satisfy their own wants. They owe nothing to any man, they expect nothing from any man; they acquire the habit of always considering themselves as standing alone, and they are apt to imagine that their whole destiny is in their own hands.” [emphasis mine]

And so who do we accept as our leader? It used to be that a woman accepted her husband as her leadership, for he likely had more education, had experienced more of the world, and it seemed the natural thing. This has been turned upside down in the last forty years. Today, more women are attending college than men, and increasingly the leading cause of divorce is a fight over who will lead the household.

Most people no longer live near their parents, so it is difficult for a college-educated man or woman who lives 200 miles from home to respect the judgment, let alone obey the orders of a father or mother who has less education. So who will you follow?

In the 1940’s and 1950’s, men were drafted into the army and they learned to follow orders. Today, few people enter the armed forces and we look with suspicious eyes upon any organization that asks for obedience. We do not want to obey anyone – Why not?

Perhaps there are three key reasons:

First of all, it is the effect of democracy that de Tocqueville noticed a hundred and fifty years ago. We have been told that we are sovereign, that we make the decisions with our vote and that our representatives in Charleston and in Washington are our representatives, not our rulers. And so, we have become very independent-minded because we have the power. The latest election was another example of the power of the independent person.

Another reason we don’t want to follow anyone is because every time we have chosen to follow someone, they disappoint us. Perhaps this began with Richard Nixon, when the Watergate tapes told us that our President was one of the foulest mouthed people we knew. Those tapes showed us that Nixon regularly talked like a sailor – and that’s an insult to sailors! And that was perhaps even more important in Nixon’s fall than the Watergate coverup was.

And soon after Nixon, we began to see a parade of pastoral leaders and ministers fall from grace. Silver and sex brought down major television ministries of different denominations, and even the separated priests of the Catholic Church were not immune to scandal.

Nixon’s fall was just the beginning for politicians. Regular prosecution began to bring down Senators, governors, mayors, sheriffs. Money, sex, drugs, power were their downfall. Even high-ranking military leaders were prosecuted for various crimes.

Our celebrities fell from grace. At first, actresses with “nice girl” images on screen were caught in adultery. Some actresses were found to be terrible mothers. Then men with “tough guy” images were found to have male partners. And eventually, the drug-using, promiscuous Hollywood or Nashville star became the stereotype, with the few clean, happily married stars that kept a balanced life were now seen as odd.

And we can’t find a Walter Cronkite anymore. Those trusted news anchors of the 1960’s and 1970’s began to fade the election night when and 80-year-old David Brinkley famously cussed a blue streak on an open mike, not realizing that what he was saying was going to televisions across America. And now we find that reporters were actively colluding with the campaigns, feeding questions before debates so answers could be prepared, checking stories with campaign leaders so nothing embarrassing would accidentally be said about the preferred candidate, and generally taking sides rather than reporting.

So who is left to trust?

And the final blow from the world came when the churches that claim to promote Christ’s love to all instead stopped fishing for men and women and decided that they only wanted cleaned, fillets in their buildings, people who were already “good Christians”. We forgot that we were supposed to love people first, tell them that Jesus accepts all people and all people have sinned, including each one of us, and instead we told people they had to clean up their act before they’d be welcome. But how could we know what to do if we were denied listening to the Word of God? And so there was no one left for ordinary people to follow.

But there is still one left. As we think of Thanksgiving, we can be thankful that there is still one person left to follow.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus of Nazareth was arrested for the crime of blasphemy. It seems that this Jesus had claimed repeatedly to be God’s Son, divine. He even claimed once in John 10:30 that “I and the Father are one”. And so, when they were able to, the Jewish authorities came one night and arrested him and charged him with the capital crime of blasphemy. They wanted Jesus to die.

Jesus had a very long night. The next day, he was taken to the Roman governor, and Pontius Pilate, the governor asked him an important question: Pilate said to Jesus, "Are you the King of the Jews?"... Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here." So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You [correctly] say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth (John 18:33b, 36-37).

A king of a kingdom which does not belong to this world? But what proof could Jesus provide? What reason would anyone have to follow a king whose kingdom is not here?

And so, Pilate reluctantly sentenced Jesus to death by crucifixion. And Pilate, to taunt the Jews and anyone else around who might challenge the power of the Romans to determine who was a king and who was not a king, put a sign on the pole with Jesus which said in several languages: “This is the King of the Jews”. Jesus was forced to carry his cross outside the walls of Jerusalem. Our reading takes it from here.

When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

There was a written notice above him, which read: 'This is the king of the Jews.'

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Everyone wanted to know if Jesus was a king worth following. The Romans taunted him, others sneered at him. But one of the criminals recognized that Jesus had done nothing wrong. He believed that Jesus was a king.

That Friday afternoon, Jesus died on that cross. The Romans even stabbed his already-dead body to make sure he was dead. And so the question becomes, “Why should anyone follow a dead man who claimed to be a king?”

The answer came to us on Sunday morning. It was then that people began to report that he was alive. Eventually, over the next 40 days, over 500 people saw him alive, speaking, eating, preaching, and teaching. Several of those witnesses wrote down what they had seen. Others traveled as far as India, as far as Rome, as far as Persia, as far as Egypt, as far as Spain to spread the word.

Apparently, it was true that Jesus was a king, because God would not have raised anyone from the dead who was a liar or who was delusional and tried to lead others to accept his delusion.

And over the centuries, literally thousands upon thousands of people have reported seeing or hearing Christ, talking to Him, and millions more have reported being guided by him.

And so we ask, Who is more worthy to be followed than the Son of God, a man who has a kingdom with over two billion people, more people than India or China? Who is more worthy to be our king than the Son of God, wise beyond measure, good and sinless above all people, and able to access the creative power of God with a Word – indeed, the man who is the living, breathing Word of God?

But then again, our American independence kicks in. More of the people in this country who claim Christ as their king treat him as their Sunday shift-manager rather than their king. How about you? Do you listen more and closer to your boss at work than you do to Jesus? Do you respect your shift manager more than Christ’s commands? Are you more supportive of an ordinary politician than you are the King of Kings?

Where is your loyalty? He commands us to tell all the people of all nations about Himself. He commands us to baptize people in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach those people all His commands. And in return, he promised that he will always be with us, to the very end of the age.

Why do you come to Church? Is it because you have a promise of eternal life? Is it because you have friends here? Or is it because your King has asked it of you, because your king wants you to proclaim Him to the nations, because your king wants you to know what you’re talking about and you have been filled with gratitude that you have finally found the one Person in this Universe worth following?

Each of us made a choice to follow this King, Jesus. But we would do well to remember that before we chose Him, He chose us. Without His choice, we could not follow Him, we could not be here today, we could not feel the joy of His love.

As we finish up our worship today, we are at the end of the Church Year. Next week begins Advent, the time of preparation for the coming of Christ. Perhaps this is a good time to consider where your loyalties lie, to consider what you believe in your heart, to consider what the purpose of your life is.

Princes and Princesses of the Kingdom of God, Jesus Christ, the King of this Kingdom has asked you to tell people about Him. At the end of the book of Matthew, Jesus said: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."
Will you do this today?

If so, then say, "Yes. With God’s help, I will do my best to declare Jesus’ name and power to all the nations, to make disciples, to lead people to baptism, and to teach them to obey everything Christ has commanded."

Will you read the Word of God?

Response: "Yes, I will do my best to read something from the Holy Scriptures each day."

Will you pray for guidance?

Response: "Yes, I will pray that the wisdom of Christ guide me each day."
Will you listen for the response of the Holy Spirit?

Response: "Yes, I will listen for that still, small voice that has guided the saints through the ages."
What do you expect for your obedience?

Response: "Only these…That Jesus will be with me until the end of the age, and that I will one day enter into the life eternal in His Presence."

May God bless you and help you keep these promises!

Now may the blessings of the Holy Spirit enter into you, may your life become whole and healed through your service to Jesus Christ, and may the power of God the Father enable you to do miraculous signs and wonders which grow the Kingdom of God, filling you with joy and love!